Texas LAND•Spring 2017

TEXAS LAND / Roundup Issue
Big Bucks: ICF Photo Tourneys
Using professional golf as a model, John Martin, working
under the Valley Land Fund and Images for Conservation Fund
banners, conceived a series of nature photography tournaments.
“Golf is a slow game and yet it is a $40 billion/year industry
worldwide,” Martin said. “Because of the demand for golf, more
than 2 million acres worldwide have been kept open.”
With that in mind, Martin designed tourneys to create
demand for high-quality nature photography and provide
financial reward for photographers and the landowners
who hosted them. After two years of planning, Valley Land
Fund hosted the first tournament in 1994. It was held in the
Rio Grande Valley and involved 108 ranches paired with 108
photographers. Martin and his team of volunteers raised
$94,000 to support the event, and paid out $77,000 in prizes of
which the landowners got half.
“From its inception, the Valley Land Fund Wildlife Photo Contest
was the richest photo tournament in the world,” Martin said.
Building on that initial success, the Valley Land Fund
hosted a tournament every other year from 1994–2008.
Images for Conservation Fund was created in 2003 to develop
the Pro-Tour of Nature Photography and held three Pro-Tour
events that rotated between the Hill Country, the Gulf Coast
and the Borderlands involving a total of more than 10 million
acres. Each tournament was supported by a book showcasing
the winners.
The Pro-Tours paired 20 photographers with 20 ranches
for 30 days. The photographers’ goals were photographing the
biodiversity on the ranches.
“When photographers shoot at this level of detail, ranchers
are always surprised to see what is calling their habitat home,”
Martin said.
The prize money for the three Pro-Tours alone was $500,000.
“We understand that conservation can’t be driven by desire
alone,” Martin said. “Landowners have to have the financial
resources to keep their land holdings together, thereby
protecting our natural resources.”
For more information ICF and its upcoming events
including its on-going series of Pro-Am tourneys, see
www.ImagesForConservation.org.
While Martin sees the potential in nature photography,
particularly as a way to allow the next generation of
landowners to remain on the ranch, he understands it takes
work to make the enterprise successful.
“It’s not a matter of build it and they will come,” he said.
“Nature photography is a hospitality business. It takes
aggressive, thoughtful marketing to get people’s attention
and then it takes attentive customer service to ensure
they’re satisfied with the experience.”
In addition, it takes infrastructure such as suitable
photo blinds and, depending on the land’s proximity to
town, lodging.
“Photographers live for the golden hours of light early in
the morning and late in the afternoon,” Martin said. “They
don’t particularly like to tack an hour’s pre-dawn or postsunset
drive to a hotel on to their days.”
Nature photography is still a relatively new business on
the Texas landscape; Martin estimates there are 15 ranches
across the state that have fully embraced the enterprise. He,
working like a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, continues
to plant seeds that he hopes will grow into financially
rewarding conservation.
“Using photography to prompt conservation is nothing
new,” Martin said. “In 1872, photographer William Henry
Jackson was part of the three-year Haden Expedition in
Wyoming and Montana. On his return he made prints of the
journey for the President and every member of Congress.
The result? Our first national park. Images create an
emotional connection that prompts action.”
Todd Steele/Shape Ranch